Appeals Court Reverses $1 Million Age Bias Award

January 23, 1997|By MARK PAZNIOKAS; Courant Staff Writer

A federal appeals court has reversed a Glastonbury advertising salesman's $1 million age discrimination award, concluding that the verdict was tainted by a Hartford trial judge's improper instructions to the jury.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the jury's April 1995 verdict and ordered a new trial in the lawsuit by Kenneth R. Thornley against Penton Publishing Inc., a trade publisher based in Cleveland.

A three-judge appellate panel decided that U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny had improperly instructed the jury on a fine point about Thornley's burden of proof on the issue of his job performance.

The court said Thornley had to show that he met his employer's expectations for the sales job, and Chatigny told the jury that Thornley had to ``satisfy the legitimate expectations of an employer.''

``The decision was so flagrantly wrong,'' Leon M. Rosenblatt of West Hartford, who represents Thornley, said of the appeals court's ruling. If Chatigny erred, it was a harmless error, Rosenblatt said.

Rosenblatt criticized the reversal in unusually strong terms, accusing the appeals court of fashioning a questionable rationale simply to overturn a major damage award.

``In my view, it's intellectually dishonest,'' Rosenblatt said. ``It's clear to me they decided the result they wanted, and then decided a way to get there.''

One of Penton Publishing's lawyers, Patricia Lantzy of Cleveland, found the decision to be well reasoned.

``The judges' decision was absolutely sound. They based their decision on very strong legal grounds, and there was ample support for the judges' decision,'' she said.

The decision was written by Circuit Judge Pierre N. Leval. Concurring were Circuit Judge Ralph K. Winter and U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson of Hartford, who was temporarily sitting on the appeals court by designation.

Thornley, now 61, was fired in early 1989, when he was 53. He was hired by Penton, a large trade publisher, as a district sales manager in 1967, and was promoted in 1980 to senior regional manager.

Penton justified his dismissal by pointing to poor sales performance.

Rosenblatt is asking the 2nd Circuit to rehear the case, but those requests are routinely denied.